Panasonic Outs BDXL- and 3D Compatible DVRs

Having those BDXL Blu-rays with 100GB capacity is nice, but they’re useless with all Blu-ray recorders that are currently on the market (with one exception in case of the Japanese market). That’s why Panasonic Japan yesterday announced [JP] a total of six new DVRs that come with HDDs and Blu-ray recorders on board that actually support the new format (and three of the devices are 3D enabled).

The three models of the DMR-BW series don’t come with 3D support. There are two models with a 500GB HDD (one of them has just one digital TV tuner, while all the other 5 models have two), which will retail for $1,060 and $1,300, respectively. The model with 1TB on board will cost $1,780.

What’s interesting is that Panasonic charges $120 more for the DVRs that have 3D capabilities (the other specs are identical). The 500GB model of the DMR-BWT series will cost $1,420, while the 1TB DVR will retail for $1,900. There’s also a flagship model with 2TB that will come with a $3,300 price tag (and two HDMI ports instead of just one as in the case of the 5 other models).

Panasonic plans to start selling the six DVRs in Japan on September 15 (no word yet from the company regarding sales outside this country).